International supermarket group Carrefour is set to open its first 100% organic store in Belgium this week, reports the Brussels-based news website Bruzz.
The new store, part of the group’s expanding Carrefour Bio sub-brand, is located at Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe, close to Brussels city centre.
Brussels has seen a growing number of dedicated organic retailers opening across the city, including specialist chains such as Bio-Planet (which operates 30 organic stores across Belgium, typically with around 6,000 SKUs) – but also several independents, which will have made the Belgian capital an obvious location for the supermarket giant’s latest organic-only offering.
Gino Van Ossel, professor of retail at the Vlerick business school, told Bruzz that he wasn’t surprised at the arrival of the organic Carrefour store. “Organic products have been gaining popularity for years. It is logical that not only smaller specialty shops, but also larger supermarkets, are responding to that trend. ”
“Carrefour has been working for years with its extensive and cheap range of organic products. You will find thousands of organic products in their hypermarkets, often as many as in a specialty store. But these hypermarkets are located on on the outskirts of the city, so a large proportion of Brussels residents cannot benefit from the organic assortment that the retailer has been showing off for so long. That is about to change with the opening for the new store.”